


Yours & Mine

by thesunsaid



Category: Critical Role (Web Series), Dragon Age II
Genre: Are Your Friends as Weird as Mine?, Commiserate, Community: intoabar, Gen, Team as Family, Walk Into A Bar
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-20
Updated: 2020-06-20
Packaged: 2021-03-03 22:13:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,555
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24822907
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thesunsaid/pseuds/thesunsaid
Summary: Aveline walks into The Hanged Man who meets a stranger with whom she seems to have a lot in common. They discuss their friends and discover perhaps they can help each other out.----"Aveline," she said and then gestured to her friends in the back corner. "Those are mine.""Ah, so you understand my plight."
Relationships: Aveline Vallen & Jarrett Howarth
Comments: 2
Kudos: 13
Collections: A Ficathon Goes Into A Bar





	Yours & Mine

**Author's Note:**

> I love this concept of these two hardened Guard Captains meeting and immediately being able to acknowledge their friends are weird to someone who understands completely. Who else is going to understand such nonsense?

Dirt fell off her boots as she tapped them against the step outside the Hanged Man tavern. Aveline's day had been long and tiring and she was due a cold drink or two or four to help her wind down from her day. She pushed open the door assaulted by the sounds of raucous singing and shouting. The tavern was packed, guards at a table near the door were standing, flagons in hand drinking with one eye on the rest of the room. She spotted her friends in the back corner, at what had become Hawke's favorite table. All of them too focused on Varric's wild hand motions to notice her as he likely spun some tale or another. 

She squeezed between tables, pushing past a man that seemed nearly twice her height and almost as wide as he deposited a round of drinks at a full table. She eyed their table warily, not recognizing any of the faces, as she moved past them to get to the bar. Corff spotted her and nodded, pulling a drink for her before coming to greet her. 

The drink slid across the damp bar and Corff gave her a lopsided grin. 

"Busy night," she said, dropping a coin into his palm. 

"Like this all day," he said. "Been hearing wild tales, Guard Captain."

Aveline arched a brow. She'd heard nothing out of the ordinary from the guards during the announcements at the shift change before she'd left for the evening. 

"What kind of wild tales?"

Beside her a man chuckled and from the corner of her eye she watched his head shake with disbelief. She looked over to find him smiling, dark hair pulled away from his thin, angled chin in a low ponytail. He was looking her over, eyes lingering on the markings on her armor that noted her as Captain of the Guard. He smiled and it made his dark eyes seem brighter, a hint of age showing at the corners. 

"Something amusing?" she asked. 

He didn't immediately respond and in a flicker of appraisal she took in his outfit; dark and well-fitting, clean with only a hint of road wear. It was obvious he had money and his slim, muscled frame suggested that the daggers at his side weren't just for show. He was leaning on the bar, but his gaze slipped past her to the table of strangers she'd passed. 

When he nodded, he did so with an inclination towards that table and those strangers. "It's their fault," he said. 

She turned, drink in hand and leaned her hips back against the bar to look out over the crowd. Her eyes settled on the table, a mix of humans and gnomes and the one large man it was impossible to overlook. Their clothes were out of place here in Kirkwall, here in the Hanged Man among the Ferelden refugees and the Kirkwall downtrodden. She realized with a longer look that not all of the humans were exactly, completely human. And two of them, adorned with feathers one in black, one in blue, were nearly identical. 

"Adventurers?" she asked, already assuming the answer. "You with them?" 

He shrugged. "In a manner of speaking."

"What manner is that?" Aveline noted the sharpness in his look when he turned to her. Though he was smiling, something else lay below the surface.

"I work _with_ them, yes." His answer was stilted, words measured as though he judged each of them, inspecting them before speaking, used them with specific purpose. 

Aveline wondered if 'with' meant 'for'. Not that it would matter either way. She didn't press. Instead she stretched out her free hand. 

"Aveline," she said and then gestured to her friends in the back corner. In the time she'd not been paying attention to them, their attention had shifted to Isabela who now stood on top of the table, leaning down in an attempt to pull Merrill up with her. "Those are mine."

"Ah, so you understand my plight." He chuckled and took her hand with a sharp, strong handshake. "Jarrett." He nodded at her, free hand pointing at her armor and then to the guards near the front door. "You live here… work for the city?" A thought passed that creased his forehead for a split second, smile dropping.

"Guard Captain," she replied. 

He winced slightly. "Ah. Well-- well met, Guard Captain Aveline--"

"Off-duty." She grinned and took a drink, watching him over the rim. 

He nodded and turned his attention on his companions. "Will be out of your hair in a day or so. They're only here for…" His voice dropped low to a conspiratorial whisper and he tilted his head toward her as he continued. "Rumors have it there's a dragon up on the mountain. They've been tracking it. It's a…" he pursed his lips, thinking and shaking his head when he couldn't come up with it. "A thing for them. Dragons. Killing them."

"Is that the wild tale?" Aveline asked. 

"They have many wild tales to tell. They're coming off the heels of long journey, and a protracted undersea battle. It didn't go well."

Aveline followed his gaze and took in the faces of the group in a slow, methodical sweep she reserved for investigations. Despite their revelry, they did seem tired. The two she assumed as siblings leaning shoulder to shoulder as if holding each other up. Hands were clasped on the bench between one of them and a lovely woman with hair as red as her own. The long staff leaned against the table next to her reminded her of Merrill's. The only one of them who seemed not to be hiding any amount of exhaustion or battle-weariness was the large man, though she wasn't sure if the grey nature of his skin was usual or not. It reminded her of the Qunari, and other than his size, that was where the similarities stopped. Even the short man in purples and an exuberant, playful smile seemed to be casting furtive glances at the woman to his right, a striking, pale woman in armor as heavy as her own. She didn't look like a Templar but Aveline couldn't be sure exactly of what her armor meant though the sun symbols seemed familiar.

"Are they staying here for the night?"

Jarrett nodded over a sip of his drink. "I believe they've procured two rooms here. I have plans to find them a new ship in the morning while they go hunting."

"Up the mountain, you said?"

"The one with the blue feather," he said, indicating the woman with the slightest tilt of his head, "she's a skilled tracker, specifically dragons. She'll get them up there."

"Them? You're not going with them?"

"As I said, I have a ship to charter, supplies to get, armor to restore." He shrugged. "They fight, I make sure they can get on their way when it's over."

"Ah. A better deal that fighting a dragon I suppose." Aveline drank again and then sighed, looking over at her friends. If she related the news of a dragon, Hawke would have them up the mountain in a moment. While she hadn't yet heard any tales of a dragon on the mountain, she had heard reports of men from the mine going missing. She'd planned to send a small group of guards to investigate. But they wouldn't last against a dragon, that wasn't what they were trained for.

Aveline gestured to her friends again, Isabela had removed herself from the table and was squeezed between Hawke and Fenris. Hawke had a hand around her back, squeezing as he leaned across to talk to Fenris. They were all smiling, happy, it'd been awhile since they'd all been together for a night at The Hanged Man. And she'd rather tell them about a dragon and keep them from Hawke's horrible idea of returning to the Deep Roads. Nothing good ever came of that place. 

"You think your friends would welcome help?" she asked, turning around and leaning forward on the bar to get Corff's attention for a refill.

He turned too but she caught his nod. "They're congenial. Never meet a friendly face they didn't try and recruit for some purpose or another."

She shook her head and laughed. "I know the type." As Corff took both their mugs for a refill Aveline said, "I get this," laying down coin for both. 

"Thanks," Jarrett said, nodding and putting away his own. 

"I can make introductions. Mine need a distraction, will happily fight a dragon, and they know the mountain well. Might be boon to your tracker there."

He took a breath and leaned on his elbow, looking at Aveline. His smile was soft, appreciative and for a moment she forgot all about introducing their companions to each other. It was easy to smile back, easy to relax and take in his warm features. 

Corff returning with their drinks broke the silent moment between them. Aveline stood a light straighter, remembering she was still in uniform even if she was off-duty. Jarrett moved slower, nodding his understanding. 

"Another drink before we encourage what is likely to be an interesting round of introductions."

Aveline held her drink out towards his, in a wooden, sloshing thud of a toast. "To new friends."

"I'll absolutely drink to that."


End file.
